Translations

Russian use

The original (archaic) meaning of the Russian
version of this term (товарищ, tovarishch) meant something like
"business companion", often "travel (or other adventure) mate",
referring to the noun товар (tovar, i.e. 'merchandise').

The common secondary meaning of the term was (and
continues to be) simply that of "friend", often referring to a
schoolmate (as in 'he has been my товарищ since high school'). This
usually implies a less close degree of friendship, signifying
something similar to "a person with whom I have a good working (or
similar) relationship".

Because of its use by communists, the term is now
strongly associated with communism, particularly the
Marxist-Leninist,
Stalinist
and Trotskyist
varieties, and the Soviet
Union. The term can be affixed to titles to add a Soviet flavor
(e.g. "Comrade Colonel"). The usage is fairly flexible. For
instance, one might be referred to as Comrade Lenin or Comrade
Chairman, or simply as Comrade. While the term has been used
mockingly in stereotypical portrayals of the Soviet Union in Cold
War films and books, it was frequently employed in Soviet society.
In the Soviet Union the term was used essentially the same way that
terms like "Mister" and "Sir" are employed. The term is not used
often in contemporary Russian society, but it is still widely used
today by the armed forces, where officers and soldiers are normally
addressed as "Comrade Colonel," "Comrade General," or the
like.

The science
fiction story Time Heals by Poul
Anderson depicted a society in the year 2837 where "tovrash" is
a worldwide word for "person", and "Tov" precedes the name of
everybody like the present "Mr" - both having, by that far future
time, no political significance.

Chinese usage

In Chinese,
the translation of comrade is "同志" (), literally meaning "(people
with) the same spirit, goal, ambition, etc." It was best known for
its widespread use in mainland
China after the
People's Republic of China was founded, for basically anyone.
For example, women were nu tongzhi (female comrade), children were
xiao tongzhi (little comrade) and seniors were lao tongzhi (old
comrade). However, after the 1980s and the onset
of China's market-oriented reforms, this term has been moving out
of daily usage. It remains in use as a respectful term of public
address among middle-aged Chinese and members of the Communist
Party of China. Within the Communist Party, failure to address
a fellow member as tóng zhì is seen as a subtle but unmistakable
sign of disrespect and enmity.

At party or civil meetings, the usage of the term
has been retained. Officials often address each other as Tongzhi,
and thus the usage here is not limited to Communist Party members
alone. In addition, Tongzhi is the term of preference to address
any national leader when their titles are not attached (e.g.
Comrade Mao Zedong, Comrade Deng Xiaoping).

The Kuomintang
(Nationalist Party) also has a long tradition of using the term
comrade (同志) to refer to its members, usually as a noun rather than
a title; for example, a KMT member would say "Mr. Zhang is a loyal
and reliable comrade (同志)."

Recently, due to the fact that Tongzhi and Tóng
Xìng Liàn ("同性恋", homosexuality) share that same first character,
Tongzhi has recently become a colloquial term referring to a gay
person.

Southern Africa

In South
Africa, comrade is associated with the liberation struggle more
generally and the African
National Congress in particular. The members of unions
affiliated to the ANC through their union federation use the term
comrade to refer to each other. Comrade can also be a way of
describing someone who is an activist, although it has an
association with the ANC and the struggle against apartheid or economic
inequality.

In Zimbabwe, the term
is only used to people who are affiliated to the ruling party,
ZANU
(PF) where the state media also use Cde as short for comrade.
Members of the opposition mainly the MDC are often referred
by their names or Mr, Mrs or Prof.

German usage

Kamerad and Kameradin for females is the direct
translation in German
language. By those on the political left the term Genosse is
usually preferred over Kamerad. This is due to the association of
the term with militarism as well as its use
by the NSDAP
during the Third Reich.
Kamerad continues to be used today by those on the German
far-right. Kamerad is also used in non-political situations such as
within the Bundeswehr,
among firemen and in schools for classmates (Klassenkamerad).

In other languages

In Albanian,
the word shok (from Latin socius) was
used within communist circles.

The Arabic
word رفيق (Rafiq) (meaning friend) is used with the same political
connotation as "comrade." The term is used both amongst Arab
communists as well as within the Ba’ath
movement. The term predates modern political usage, and is an
Islamic male
proper name. Iranian communists use
the same term.

The Bulgarian
word for comrade is "другар" (drugar). It translates as friend or
colleague. It used to be applied to teachers as well.

The Croatian
equivalent to comrade is drug, drugar and drugarica for females. In
the period between World War II and Tito's death, it was
applied to almost everybody: teachers, officials, etc. Today it is
not used commonly, but it translates as "friend".

The Czech word
for comrade is soudruh, although the cognate kamarád is also seen.
The latter translates as "friend".

The Dutch word
is kameraad. Although it can be used to refer to communists or an
acquaintance, it is used in dialects to appoint someone's
friend.

The Esperanto word
for comrade is kamarado in the sense of a friend. The word
samideano, literally "same-thinker" is the equivalent of comrade in
the Communist sense.

The French
word is camarade. It is mainly used by communists but can apply to
classmates and soldiers.

The Greek word
is σύντροφος/συντρόφισσα syntrophos/syntrophissa (male/female),
used by communists, socialists and other left-wing groups. Other
meanings of this word are: mate, pal, friend, companion, even
partner or associate etc.

The Hebrew equivalent is
Chaver (חבר), a word which can mean both "friend" and "member" (of
a group or organization). During the time of Socialist
Zionist political and ideoligical dominance of the 1930s to the
1960s, the word in a sense similar to English "comrade" was in
widespread use, in the Kibbutz movement,
the Histadrut trade
unions, the driver-owned bus companies etc. At present, its
political use is considered old-fashioned, mainly restricted to
Israeli Communists. (The same word exists also in Yiddish, from which
is derived the colloquial Australian word
"cobber".)

The Hindi
equivalent for "Comrade" is kaamred(कामरेड) or saathi(साथी). It is
widely used among all leftist(communist) parties of india, i.e.
cpim, cpi or others.

The Hungarian
word for comrade is elvtárs. Literally, elvtárs means "policy
fellow". The term is used only for Communists - Socialists don't
use it.

The Icelandic
word for comrade is félagi. It is used as a less intimate
alternative to vinur (friend). It is also the word used for a
"member" of club or association. When used as a title to precede a
name (i.e. félagi Tító or félagi Dimitroff) it has a communist
implication.

The Italian
word for comrade is compagno, meaning "fellow". The word camerata,
meaning "roommate", is the fascist
equivalent.

The Japanese
word for comrade is " (dōshi)", the same word used in Chinese. The
word is used to refer to like-minded persons and the usage is not
necessarily limited to Communists, though the word is to some
extent associated with Communism. The word should not be confused
with a homonym "", which is a more commonly used postfix to show
people sharing a certain property.

In Korean, a
good equivalent of the word would be "동무" (dongmu), literally
meaning "friend". Although the word was originally used by the
Korean people all over the Korean
Peninsula, people living south of the 38th
Parallel begin avoiding using the word after a communist
regime was set up in the north. In North Korea,
the word replaced all prior social titles and earned a new meaning
as "a fellow man fighting for the revolution". Today, usage of the
word "동무" in South Korea
could attract suspicious eyes from the public, as it has been
stereotyped that only communists would use the word.

In Malay,
the words Komrad, Kawan and Sahabat are used among socialist
organizations.

In Norwegian,
the word is kamerat. It can be associated with communist lingo, but
may just as well be used to refer to a friend, a co-worker
(arbeidskamerat) or a classmate in school (klassekamerat or
skolekamerat).

In the Philippines,
communist and left-leaning activists prefer the term kasama
(roughly, companion), and the short form, ka before the name, as in
Ka Bel (referring to labor leader Crispin
Beltran;religious personalities also use ka, in this sense
referring to kapatid (brother/sister).

In Poland, the word is
towarzysz, which has
the same origin as the Russian word. However, after the fall of
communism in Poland a person who uses the word referring to
classmates or roommates may be labelled a communist, which has a
negative connotation in Polish society.

In Portugal and
Brazil, the
word is camarada, now being commonly employed to sarcastically
refer to communists or supporters of the communist system (result
of the overusage of the term in the post-revolutionary society). It
is also prevalent in the army, and has been gaining popularity
among nationalist movements. The term used among socialist
activists nowadays tends to be companheiro /
companheira.

In Romanian
the exact translation is camarad which does not bear a political
connotation, referring mainly to wartime allies and friends. The
term used during the communist era was tovarăş, which is the same
as the Russian word.

The Serbian
word for comrade is drug and is a regular word for
'friend'.

The Slovak
word for comrade is súdruh. Slovak language also knows a term
"kamarát" too, but it is normally translated as a
friend.

In Slovenia comrade
is similar to the Russian translation - Tovariš - which
incidentally can also mean "teacher".

In Spain,
the word is compañero / compañera ("companion"); the term camarada
("companion", "friend") has also been used, but it's more
associated with the communist tradition.

The standard form in Cuba is compañero /
compañera, as it was in socialist Nicaragua and
Chile. In
some parts of Latin America, camarada is the more frequent word,
except in Peru, where the term
is commonly associated with Shining
Path, members of the social-democrat party APRA employ compañero
to refer to fellow members of the party. The term "camarada" is the
more normal among Spanish
Communists.

In Swahili, the
equivalent word is ndugu for brother-in-arms, or dada for a female
comrade.

The Swedish
word is kamrat. Although it can be associated with communist lingo
it may just as well be used to refer to a friend, a co-worker
(arbetskamrat) or a classmate in school (klasskamrat or
skolkamrat).

The Tamil word
for comrade is Thozhare (தோழரே) and is a regular word for
'friend'.

The Turkish
word Yoldaş (literally co-traveller) has become used within the
communist movement. In the climate of harsh anticommunist
repression the word largely disappeared from common
usage.

In the United
Kingdom, the term comrade is still used as a form of address
among some Labour
Party members, although it is much less common than
formerly.

In the United
States, the word "comrade" carries a very strong connotation of
being associated with Communism, Marxism-Leninism,
and the Soviet Union
in general. Especially during the Cold War, to
address someone as "comrade" marked either the speaker, person
addressed, or both as suspected communist sympathizers. It is still
used in its generic context by some American socialists, even
strong anti-communists. It latterly is frequently used with
humorous intent. However in recent years, from 2000 and on, the
term "Comrade" is now a reminensence of the communist witch hunt
period. Now the term "comrade" is actually used to describe
friendship or even teamwork.

Animal Farm

In George
Orwell's novel Animal Farm,
the animals all refer to each other as comrade, as the story is a
satirical look at the Russian Revolution. Also, in George Orwell's
novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Party members are meant to refer to
each other as 'comerade'. Critics says tht orwell was strongly
motivated by political moves, and the events which he described
were based on the countries which are burdened by heavy wars. More
orwell was also a staunch supporter of british
social-democrats.